This text was converted to ascii format for Project Wittenberg by Rev. Robert E. Smith and is in the public domain. You may freely distribute, copy or print this text. Please direct any comments or suggestions to: Rev. Robert E. Smith of the Walther Library at Concordia Theological Seminary.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

"'We will have a robust continuing presence throughout the region, which is proof of our ongoing commitment to Iraq and to the future of that region, which holds such promise and should be freed from outside interference to continue on a pathway to democracy,' Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in Tajikistan after the president’s announcement."

Kinnoch: With respect, Mr. Gandhi, without British administration, this country would be reduced to chaos. Gandhi: Mr. Kinnoch, I beg you to accept that there is no people on Earth who would not prefer their own bad government to the good government of an alien power. Brigadier: My dear sir! India *is* British. We're hardly an alien power! [silence]

“For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.”

Some might argue that the “we” in this sentence means “Lutherans.” But it doesn’t. For when St. Paul – under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration – penned this verse as part of his letter to the Roman Christians, there was no such thing as a “Lutheran.” Even the Christian pastor whose last name would lend itself to Lutherans would not even be born for another 14 centuries – another Christian theologian who was to write a few letters of his own to Roman Christians as well.

“For we hold…” says St. Paul. “We” is an important word, especially in our day and age of individualism and as we live in a culture where all opinions are considered equal. But the text says: “For we hold” – not “I hold.” The confession of faith that a person is “justified by faith apart from works of the law” is not merely a personal opinion or a Lutheran opinion, but rather the one universal Christian truth. This is not just what we believe because we bear the name of one man, Martin Luther, but rather because we – the big “we,” the collective “we,” the catholic “we,” – all Christians of every time and place “hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.”

This biblical understanding of the relationship of faith, works, and the law is crucial to the confession of the Christian faith. So crucial, in fact, that St. Paul is really saying that unless you believe this, you are no Christian at all.

Does this mean that only Lutherans are real Christians? Not at all, dear friends! Not at all! For even though Lutheran and Roman Catholic theologians fought over this point, it is also true that rank and file Christians of every denomination believe that Jesus Christ is their Savior, that they cannot earn salvation by their works, that sin has crippled them to the point that they must depend on God’s mercy through the blood of Christ the Crucified, and that we, as St. Paul teaches us, have nothing to boast about in ourselves.

We Lutherans come from a tradition within the Christian church that teaches this point with clarity and confesses this doctrine, hopefully, with charity – knowing that this is not merely a Lutheran doctrine, but a Christian doctrine, not merely something the “small we” of Lutheran Christianity confesses, but the “large we” of the Church catholic has always confessed with St. Paul and the apostles and the martyrs and the doctors of the Church – right up until our own day and age.

Today, we celebrate the contribution of the sixteenth century reformers of the Church, largely led by a priest and doctor of theology named Martin Luther, in searching the Holy Scriptures for truth instead of relying on the fallen hearts and minds of sinful men. We confess with these reformers – whom their opponents insulted with the name “Lutheran” – that faith is necessary for salvation, as faith is the means by which we sinners receive God’s grace and mercy that He extends to us in Christ Jesus. And we also understand that if our faith were credited to us as a good work, we could boast of our justification as a personal accomplishment rather than as a “gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

St. Paul could not be more clear, dear friends, as he also taught the Christians in Ephesus: we are saved by grace, through faith, and not by our own works.

And we thank God for Doctor Luther and the reformers for preaching this, even when the hierarchy of the Church was more interested in saving dollars than saving sinners, more concerned with hoarding up treasures of gold for itself than for storing up treasures in heaven for the redeemed. The Church’s leaders needed to change, to repent, to hear and heed the Word of the Lord – but they refused.

And this is why the Reformation is such a bittersweet celebration. Of course, we are honored to wrap ourselves in the mantle of Luther, but we also know that it is a mantle that is splattered with the blood of thousands of peasants, of innocent victims of religious warfare, and of the devastation of war crimes committed in the name of the Prince of Peace.

We surround ourselves today in the color red: not only the color of the Holy Spirit’s fiery Pentecost descent upon the Church that He watches over, “calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies,” but it is also the color of the blood of the martyrs – ancient and modern – whose lives were laid down as a witness and testimony of a truth so sacred that people were, and are, willing to die rather than surrender it.

Many who confessed this truth of the “eternal Gospel” were put to death. Many were tortured. Many were exiled. Many were put on trial. But as our Lord taught us: “The kingdom of heaven has suffered violence.” Satan has always unsheathed his loathsome sword to shed the blood of confessing Christians. The Reformation was tragic insofar as Satan had infiltrated the Church itself and used Christians to shed the holy blood of other Christians – the blood of the body of Christ Himself being spilled by the Church in the name of Jesus.

And yet, brothers and sisters, our forebears made the good confession: pastors and laymen, men and women, nobles and peasants – people who yearned for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and who were taught the faith from preaching, from the liturgy, from the catechism – all rooted and grounded in the Holy Scriptures themselves.

This is what we celebrate in the Reformation – and it is a great and wonderful celebration – even if it is muted by the senseless and horrific acts of violence that characterize this period in our history.

But notice, dear brothers and sisters, dear catholic Christians who to this day bear the name “Lutheran,” notice that we are not to boast. For let us not forget what St. Paul also taught us: “What then becomes of our boasting? It is excluded.” We have nothing to boast about. The fact that we hold this clear and biblical teaching about justification is nothing for us to brag about, hold other Christians in contempt over, nor puff ourselves up. It is purely by God’s grace that we – each one of us – confess the teachings laid out in Luther’s Small Catechism. We have been taught the truth of Scripture, and we joyfully confess it – but never apart from the humility with which our Lord exhorts us to display. For we have been saved by grace, by God’s mercy – nothing more, nothing less. And we deserve this grace no more or no less than any other poor, miserable sinner. For that is the definition of grace: it is undeserved mercy. Dear friends, our own boast is in Christ. Christ alone. All other boasting is excluded.

Rather than boast, we are to be about the good works prepared before the foundation of the world that the Lord has prepared for us. We are to work out our salvation – that salvation given to us as a free gift – by doing the works that we do not have to do out of fear, but rather that we wish to do out of love.

St. John saw a beautiful vision that has been placed into our ears again this morning: “Then I saw another angel... with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people.”

Given that we confess the gospel in its purity, we are not called to boast, but to proclaim, not to pat ourselves on the back, but rather to be the hands of Christ in the world, proclaiming an “eternal gospel” to all people.

When we are busy doing the work we have been given, knowing that we have been saved by grace, there is neither the inclination nor the time to boast. Dear friends, let us confess the eternal Gospel with clarity and let us confess this doctrine of justification with charity, knowing that our only boast is in Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer. Let us celebrate the Reformation not with pride, but with humility, knowing that at the heart of our Reformation is the cross – by which the Lord has saved us by the shedding of His blood. Soli Deo Gloria – to God alone be the glory – now and forever. Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Pharisees were known for their knowledge of the Scriptures and their religiousness. They always went above and beyond when it came to the law and to the performance of rituals. And they were also known for their hatred of Jesus.

One day, a lawyer from the Pharisees came to ask Jesus a question. This was not really a question, however. Rather, it was a trap. For the question was designed to “test him.”

And so the Pharisee asks Jesus about the Law. And notice it isn’t about how the Law convicts him of sin, or how the Law drives us to seek forgiveness, or how the Law always accuses us so that we repent of our sins and turn to our Savior.

No, indeed, the Pharisee wants nothing to do with what the Law might do to him, how the Law might actually affect him in real life – but rather he wants to treat and tame the law like a dry academic subject. But, dear friends, our Lord points out that this is not the stuff of case law and argumentation. Rather, our blessed Lord – citing Scripture itself – retorts to the lawyer that the Law is all ultimately about love.

For the “great commandment” is “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” And right behind this greatest commandment is the second greatest: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Notice that our Lord doesn’t leave room for loopholes, excuses, or technicalities. Our Lord cares nothing for bureaucratic interpretations and political correctness. Instead, He cuts to the chase: “love.”

If you want to fulfill the law, really and truly fulfill it rather than just keep it on the surface, doing the letter of the law, jumping through hoops, and following mechanical directions – then you are to love God and love your neighbor. And if you do this, you will keep the Ten Commandments. For as our Blessed Lord teaches us: “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

The Pharisees knew the Scriptures, knew the doctrine, knew the rules and regulations – but they lacked love. When they externally obeyed the law, they did so for an immediate reward: recognition of men and the self-delusion that God is impressed. But without love, was this really obedience at all?

Our Lord’s long-running disputes with the Pharisees demonstrate what they thought of love. For they refused to eat with certain kinds of people, criticized Jesus for ignoring their manmade rituals, attacked those whom Jesus healed, accused Jesus of breaking the law when he did miracles on the Sabbath, and they plotted with the Sadducees, Herodians, and Romans to bring a capital charge of treason against the only Man who never sinned, murdering their God, the one who gave them not only life, but who won for them eternal life.

No wonder our Lord tries desperately to make them stop yammering on about the commandments, and which is the greatest, and implored them instead to interpret the commandments in light of love.

And the reason the Pharisees knew nothing of love is because they wanted nothing of Jesus. We know that God is love, and we know that love impelled our Lord to not only take on our flesh, but also to take on our sins, to take on our punishment, and to take on death itself.

If the Pharisees wanted to see what perfect love looks like, what it means to keep the two great commandments of the Law, how the Law and the Prophets are indeed fulfilled – they needed to look no further than to the cross.

Dear friends, at the cross, our Lord not only kept, but fulfilled the greatest commandment: to love God with every ounce of His being, with all his heart, soul, and mind. He carried out the will of His Father, selflessly, in love for God and in obedience to His will. But just as the cross has not only a vertical beam, but also a horizontal beam, the Lord Jesus, the Crucified One, demonstrates perfect love for us while we were still sinners, loving His neighbor as Himself.

Our Lord taught us that there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends, and Jesus lays down His life for the life of the world. He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, the One who does not just talk about the Law and pontificate on which part is greatest, but He who actually obeys the law and demonstrates, at the cross, how He has fulfilled both Law and Prophets in order to save us poor, miserable sinners – all through love.

This, dear friends, is why the Lord Jesus asks them a question they don’t expect: “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” The Pharisees know that the Christ is the Son of David – for they know the Bible. But what they don’t know is that the Christ is this Jesus who is looking them in the eye and teaching them with His lips. They know the Bible but they do not know the Word.

For Jesus teaches them the sublime reality from Scripture that the Christ is to be a Man: a human descendant of David, but at the same time God: David’s Lord, David’s God.

And when Jesus asks them to spell out the implications of these passages of Scripture – the very Bible that the Pharisees claimed to know so well – they were dumbstruck. They had nothing to say: “And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask Him any more questions.”

Dear friends, let us never allow our faith to become a cold academic exercise, a way for us to earn earthly praise from others, a mechanical obedience to ritual. For we worship a God who took flesh, lived a perfect life, fulfilled the Law and the prophets, died for us sinners, and rose again for our justification and to the glory of the Father!

We worship a God who loves us, and who implores us to “go and do likewise.” And we can only “do likewise” if we know who it is that we confess as the Christ. Let us never be willing to be struck silent when asked: “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” For we know our Creator, our Redeemer, the Lord and Giver of life, the One True God who loved us, loves us, and will love us unto all eternity. Let us always be willing to ask Him questions, not to “test Him,” but rather to know Him more deeply by His Word and to receive the forgiving love given to us as a gift in His Sacrament, in which the living God reveals Himself to be our loving Neighbor.

“What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Our Lord teaches us the importance of humility – which is the opposite of pride.

Pride is what got Lucifer expelled from heaven. Pride is what got Adam and Eve expelled from the Garden. Scripture teaches us that “pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Pride gets in the way of salvation. Pride turns away grace. Pride believes it is too good to receive charity. Pride is not only the greatest lure to hell, it is based on pure self-delusion.

Dear friends, we have nothing to be proud of. For we are Christians. We are helpless. We are beggars. We are recipients of charity. We are poor miserable sinners who are by our fallen nature, sinful and unclean.

Pride drove the lawyers and Pharisees to watch Jesus “carefully” to see if He would slip up and break the law. They laid in wait looking to catch Jesus doing a good work on the Sabbath. For their pride was so great that they thought they were better than Jesus. Instead of looking inward to their own very real sins, they looked outward at our blessed Lord, fishing for imaginary sins.

Our Lord teaches them the value of humility by comparing their attitude to someone who attends a social function sitting somewhere where he doesn’t belong. Eventually, the person holding the ticket shows up, and the impostor has to be escorted from the seat, red faced, hopefully to find any place at all among the cheap seats. For in God’s kingdom, “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Again, dear brothers and sisters, we have nothing to be proud of. For we are Christians. We are helpless. We are beggars. We are recipients of charity. We are poor miserable sinners who are by our fallen nature, sinful and unclean.

Our Lord finds us on the bleachers and escorts us Himself to the front row. Our Lord takes our hand as we lie in the gutter and carries us into His Father’s house. Our Lord meets us in the shabby home of our sinful dying flesh and says to us: “friend, move up higher” as He gives us immortality in a resurrected, glorified body through the forgiveness of sins and His gift of everlasting life!

And this is a gift that is spurned by the proud and missed by the arrogant.

The most humble person in this sanctuary is the littlest and most helpless of all. Little Celeste has nothing to brag about. She does not own a beautiful house, drive a fancy car, have letters behind her name, does not possess great learning, nor does she have reporters following her every move armed with a camera – unless, of course, we count her rightfully pleased parents and other relatives. But Celeste is a helpless little girl, not mighty, not powerful, and not laden with personal possessions. But she, whose name means “heavenly” has a name by which her heavenly Father has called her.

And this is exactly why she is our great teacher, dear friends. Heavenly, helpless Celeste is here today teaching us how to be a Christian! Jesus Himself told us to look to the little ones who believe in him, and become like them. For this is how we come to the kingdom: with nothing to be proud of. For we are Christians. We are helpless. We are beggars. We are recipients of charity. We are poor miserable sinners who are by our fallen nature, sinful and unclean.

Celeste has today become a Christian the same way we did – with a splash of water and the mighty invocation of the Holy Trinity, all by the command and promise of Jesus! And we are to emulate this little saint, to trust, to receive, to have the Holy Name placed upon us, to be baptized and to be humble! None of us should boast any more than Celeste is boasting today – except that we can speak about our Savior. In Him is our only boast!

And this is precisely what St. Paul means when he exhorted our brothers and sisters in Ephesus to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

This is only possible, dear brothers and sisters, because of what Jesus has done for Celeste and what He has done for us! For we have all fallen into a well, a trap of sin and death, and we were all pulled out on a day of rest and rescue; saved, redeemed, and brought into the kingdom by none other than the King Himself, being taken by the hand and led to a place of honor at the banquet.

For we are not lords, prancing about like peacocks, strutting and boasting. There is indeed only “one Lord” – the Lord Jesus Christ who has saved us; “one faith” – the holy faith delivered to the saints through which we are saved; “one baptism” – in whose waters we are reborn as helpless little children, yet also as heirs of the kingdom, made rich in the heavens by the grace of our “one God and Father of all,” who is indeed “Our Father who art in heaven,” who is also Celeste’s Father, she who has been made heavenly through this one baptism; “called to one hope,” brought into this “one body” and united with us in “one Spirit.”

Celeste has nothing to boast about, and yet she has everything to boast about! She has nothing of her own flesh to be proud of. But in the kingdom, her flesh has been united to our Lord’s flesh in Holy Baptism! And in Christ, she, along with the rest of us, have a genuine boast in Christ – the One who has called us to sit with Him in the place of honor at the banquet.

And though Satan was cast out, Celeste was invited in. Though the rich and boastful Pharisees were humbled, little Celeste (like children of the Father of every age) has been exalted. Though in our sins, we sinners have been expelled from the Garden of Eden, through the cross we the redeemed have been invited back to heavenly glory, to living waters, to the fruit of the tree of life, to the bread of heaven, and to riches upon riches that will have no end!

Dear friends, we have not put ourselves “forward in the king’s presence.” Nor have we stood “in the place of the great.” Rather in our humility and in our poverty of sprit, we have been brought to the font and told “Come up here,” invited to the heavenly regions, just as our heavenly sister in Christ has been invited and now reminds us about the kingdom.

Again, dear brothers and sisters, we have nothing to be proud of. For we are Christians. We have been helped. Our pleas have been heard. We have been shown mercy. We are recipients of the Lord’s grace and riches, given a new nature, washed by the water and cleansed by the blood – of Christ, by Christ, and in Christ.

And this is our boast, now and forever. Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

It is nearly November, the time of year when folks in Chicago enjoy falling leaves and the folks in New Orleans enjoy the departure of hurricane season! The Church begins November with All Saints Day and concludes the month with the Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle. In November, we end the previous church year with the last weeks of the year reminding us of the End of the Age, and with the beginning of the church year again calling to mind the beginning of the Last Days through the mystery of our Lord's incarnation. For Americans, November is also a time of thanksgiving - which in ecclesiastical terms, makes us think of the Eucharistic Feast.

November is indeed a special time of the Church's calendar.

A magnificent choir known as the Schola Cantorum of St. Peter the Apostle (formerly the Schola Cantorum of St. Peter's in the Loop) has given the Church a wonderful musical gift for this sacred time of transition in the her calendar.

This album, Music for the November Feasts, is one of my favorite musical albums of all time - in any category. This is definitely a "desert island" CD. It is an ecumenical collection of sacred music covering centuries in a diverse mix of ecclesiastical musical styles: hymn and chant, English and Latin, old and new, a choir of men and women singing both a capella and with musical accompaniment.

I cannot recommend it enough!

Here is the Amazon link to download the album ($8.99) or any of its twenty-two tracks ($.99/each). Lutherans will especially enjoy seeing many favorites from their hymnals: such as By All Your Saints in Warfare (LSB 517, 518), Jerusalem My Happy Home (LSB 673), In the Midst of Earthly Life (LSB 755), Come Ye Thankful People, Come (LSB 892), Hail to the Lord's Anointed (LSB 398), Crown Him With Many Crowns (LSB 525), and the sainted professor Rev. Dr. Martin Franzmann's masterpiece O Kingly Love, which was not included in Lutheran Service Book, but was in Lutheran Worship (LW 346). Also, though not technically a Lutheran hymn, the great Anglican composer and chorister Dr. Healy Willan's majestic setting of the Te Deum Laudamus as sung in many Lutheran schools and churches - including the Kramer Chapel of Concordia Theological Seminary (Fort Wayne) - is part of this wonderful collection!

And if you appreciate Gregorian Chant and Latin, there are some haunting and inspiring tracks that proclaim the catholic timelessness and comforting transcendence of the Church of Jesus Christ and His Word.

As a postscript, I was honored to have the Schola's conductor, J. Michael Thompson, drop by and leave a kind comment on an old FH posting about Dr. Franzmann. Mr. Thompson, blessings on your work in the Lord's kingdom! You have a gift that is also a treasure!

Our Lord’s act of compassion in raising the widow of Nain’s son from the dead is much more than a single good deed – it is a preview of what is to come and a summation of the entire reason our Lord Jesus came into the world, died, and rose from the dead.

He came in forgiveness to conquer death and give life. He came to restore life to that which was dead in sin.

Dear friends, in our busy lives it’s easy to forget this. It’s easy to forget why we are here, why we belong to the Church, why we are listening to this sermon and why we are coming to this rail to partake of Holy Communion. We are mortal. We are dying. We are all terminally ill – whether we are going to die today, next year, or decades from now. Unless the world ends and the Lord returns, we are all going to die.

A hundred years from now – with maybe the exception of the tiniest children in our midst – we will all be dead. Those who come after us will themselves be engaged in the things of this life. Hopefully they will be in this same place listening to a preacher yet unborn reminding them of the Lord’s life-and-death message and their need to pay it heed.

The Christian faith is a matter of life and death.

And sometimes the only time we really reflect on that is at a funeral. When a loved one dies, we are forced out of our routine. We take a day off work, we absent ourselves from school, we miss the football game, we skip the board meeting, we beg out of Girl Scouts and karate and the Legion meeting, we don’t go to the mall or to the movies or to the party we hoped to attend. We may need to put our vacation on hold or otherwise rearrange our already packed schedules.

Funerals invade our time and space and remind us that we too are mortal, that death is no respecter of schedules.

In our Gospel, Jesus showed up at a funeral to remind the world that though our bodies are mortal, we were created to live eternally. Jesus came to a funeral with people burdened by sin and sorrow, and He replaced that burden with a gospel – good news – of forgiveness and hope.

There were few people in ancient times more hopeless than widows. For the most part, they could not take a job. They had no pension plan. They had no Social Security or Medicare. They were forced to rely on their surviving family members or the kindness of strangers merely to survive. And in the case of the widow at Nain, her only son was now also dead.

She was not only mourning her only son, she was looking at a hopeless future.

But Jesus crosses paths with her, has compassion on her, and touches the open coffin upon which her lifeless son lay. And Jesus, the only-begotten Son of God leads the way to a future of hope and life, one that will never end!

The Author of Life speaks the Word of life: “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the “dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.”

The son’s life was restored. The mother’s future was restored. The family’s hope was restored. The faith of the entire community was restored. Communion with God was restored.

And this was done at a funeral!

The prophet Elijah did something very similar. The Lord used Elijah to restore life to another widow’s son centuries before our Lord Jesus gave life to the widow’s son at Nain. Elijah, the man of God, heard the woman’s plea: “What have you against me?” she asked, “You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” In fact, Elijah came to plead before God to show compassion on this widow, to restore her son’s life, and to give her hope.

Our Lord Jesus Christ does the same, only He does not have to pray to God to raise the widow’s son. For He is not simply a man of God, but the Man who is God. And He has not come to remember anyone’s sins, but to forgive them. He has come not to cause anyone’s death, but to suffer death in His own body on the cross, to be resurrected to eternal life. And He gives this same renewed life to the mortal and previously hopeless sinful men and woman of every time and place, in a resurrection like His very own.

Dear friends, our Christian faith is indeed a matter of life and death. And everything in this life, and I do mean everything – that seems so important pales in comparison. Is your job important? Next to your faith it doesn’t mean a thing. For jobs come and go. Bosses come and go. But Jesus and His word endure forever, even as He gives us everlasting life.

Is the education of your children important? Next to their faith, their education means nothing. Being good at math and science, getting a good job, and having wealth to show for it will mean absolutely nothing if they lack faith.

What about all those other things that are so very important in our day to day lives, things like our hobbies and sports, our recreation and vacation, even our charitable acts and positions of authority – even positions in the church? All are worthless compared to faith.

For none of these things are eternal. What seems to incredibly important today – whether this person or that person is bothering us, whether we get recognition or win the argument, whether our team wins or whether we get the job we really want – all of these things amout to nothing when we, like the widow of Nain, are looking at a dead child, or a dead father or mother, grandfather or grandmother, or even a friend or acquaintance. Every funeral is yet another opportunity to ponder what is important in life and what it is to die, what is important in this life, and what lies beyond the grave in eternity.

Doctor Luther meditated upon what death means to the unbeliever: “Since they are beyond the pale of faith in Christ, they must either cherish this temporal life as the only thing worthwhile and hate to lose it, or they must expect that after this life they will receive eternal death and the wrath of God in hell and must fear to go there.”

In our own day and age, we also find a different sort of person, one who thinks death is a sweet friend, a natural part of life, and some unknown adventurous border to be crossed that has nothing to do with the wages of sin.

But to us Christians, people who have been touched by the hand of Jesus Christ in the waters of baptism, we who have been commanded “Arise” by His Word, recipients of Christ’s compassion and forgiveness of sins – we see death differently.

We know that death is unnatural, evil, terrible, and not according to God’s plan. We know it is the wages of sin. And we know that we too will have to die. But, dear brothers and sisters, dear fellow victors over the grave in Christ – hear what Doctor Luther exhorts us from beyond his own grave through the written word, preaching on God’s Word, when he says: “We Christians, who have been redeemed from all this by the dear blood of the Son of God, should by faith train and accustom ourselves to despise death and to regard it as a deep, strong, and sweet sleep, to regard the coffin as nothing but paradise and the bosom of our Lord Christ, and the grave as nothing but a soft couch or sofa, which it really is in the sight of God.”

In this light, death is an ugly enemy – but it is a defeated enemy. Death is cruel, but the Lord of Life is compassionate. Death deprives us of our loved ones and of life, but Christ, who loves us, gives us back our life – all through His own death on the cross and His own resurrection from the grave!

This is how St. Paul can tell us “not to lose heart” – not even as Christians suffer. In light of our Lord’s conquest of death and victory over the grave, St. Paul can indeed pray for us to be “strengthened with power through His Spirit” in our inner being.

For we truly know the “love of Christ that surpasses knowledge” – the love that conquers death and raises us to life, that we “may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

In disappointment, in sorrow, in mourning; in sadness, in suffering, in sickness; in conflict, in distress, in bewilderment – let us ever call to mind the compassionate touch and mighty life-giving Word of Jesus to “Arise!” For it echoes throughout the world and in the Word, and it will be repeated to us, resounding with power and might in our own resurrection.

Our Christian faith is a matter of life and death, dear brothers and sisters.

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Thursday, October 06, 2011

Someone shared with me a devotional article in which the author makes a theological point by mentioning the City of Gretna, Louisiana - by name. He made specific references to bail-bondsman businesses in Gretna. In fact, he mentions one by name that is on my street (4th Street), whose sign is visible from my front porch.

He also used the adjective "seamy" to describe the scene.

I have no reason to believe the author was being malicious or intentionally disparaging Gretna nor the historic neighborhood where the bail-bondsman businesses are located. But sadly, I think some people might read his description and could well inadvertently draw a "seamy" conclusion about our city and this neighborhood.

And that would be most unfortunate!

So I would like to take the opportunity to tweak the author's adjective, and replace "seamy" with "seemly!" Gretna is a "seemly" place. It is a joyful place to live. It is a happening place. I've lived all over the country, and I am more comfortable here than anywhere else. And this neighborhood (Old Gretna) is - in my opinion - the best of the best.

First of all, one finds bail-bondsmen near courthouses. Courthouses attract attorneys, and their offices and homes are often located nearby. So, in the neighborhood the author speaks of, one routinely sees well-heeled men and women rushing on foot from law office to courthouse or driving luxury cars. One will also find strolling about judges, prosecutors, city officials, parish officers (we have "parishes" instead of "counties" in Louisiana), and others. Gretna is the parish seat of Jefferson Parish, and our local parish courthouse is actually a handsome stone and glass edifice with a beautiful statue of Thomas Jefferson out front. The grounds are kept up nicely, with the lush tropical foliage that typifies our region.

Second, "seamy" implies that there is a lot of crime and/or blight. Not so in this neighborhood! The Old Gretna neighborhood is on the national historic register. Homeowners in my neighborhood are prohibited from making structural changes to our homes without government permission. I'm not in favor of such restrictions to private property, but it does go to show the care the City of Gretna has for this very special neighborhood. You do not find graffiti, litter, or any other such blight.

I have a t-shirt that says: "Gretna: the safest 3.5 square miles in the world." Sure, it's hyperbole, but Gretna is extremely safe. The courthouse complex is teeming with city and parish offices and officers. It's located about a quarter-mile from me on one side of 4th street. A quarter mile the other way (on 5th street) is the local Gretna police station. This is a safe place to live, work, walk, ride a bike, jog, or just hang out. A police officer lives a less than a block from my house. There are times when I go out at midnight and stroll between my house and my office at the church - sometimes still in my slippers. I often take six-year old Lionboy for a half-mile midnight walk to go buy milk at the Circle-K a half-mile away. Mrs. H. goes out to walk or run along the river levee at the crack of dawn without fear. The average time for the police or fire department to respond to a 911 call is sixty seconds. If you are going to commit a crime, Gretna, Lousiana is not the place to do it!

We don't have any gated communities in Old Gretna - because we don't need them. Instead of particle-board McMansions built on top of one another in crowded communities, there are actual mansions in our neighborhood: century old homes constructed of cypress wood and made to take the pounding of hurricanes, elegant, some with iron balconies, many with classic New Orleans ornamentation. Just a block away from the bail-bondsman is the lush, airy, oak-lined Huey P. Long Avenue with its huge grassy neutral ground where elderly people toss Frisbees to their dogs and kids fly kites. Nothing "seamy" about any of that!

In Gretna, neighbors look out for one another, talk to one another, and actually live as neighbors. And it is a racially and ethnically diverse area. While "limousine liberals" talk the talk about diversity but actually live in self-imposed segregation, Old Gretna is an urban gumbo bowl of ethnic backgrounds. There is a comfort and ease about race and ethnicity that I have not found anywhere else that I have lived. Large historic mansions are in the same neighborhood as small shotgun houses and humble apartments. We interact with each other - sometimes quite intimately - and we all get along just fine!

In Gretna's 3.5 square miles, we have a large city park, two basketball courts, and seven other parks. We have 12 schools, 49 restaurants, and 41 churches. We have a branch of the Jefferson Parish Public Library. We even have an observatory, a BMX track, and a Rugby club! We have the oldest continually-operating volunteer fire company in the United States, an old historic home with a working blacksmith shop, and several places within walking distance to buy seafood and po-boys - not to mention a 24-hour fitness center if you hit the food a little too hard. We have a farmer's market (a stone's throw from the "seamy" bail-bondsman) in full swing every Saturday, and a monthly outdoor art-walk in the same neighborhood. There is also a German-American Cultural Center and museum a block away. Our city's visitor's center is also right across the street with its distinctive railroad car and statue of baseball legend Mel Ott. Mel Ott was born and raised in this very neighborhood of Old Gretna, is fondly remembered by elderly Gretna folk, and was a member of Salem Lutheran Church (where I serve, also on 4th Street in the heart of the historic neighborhood). Even our City Hall is worth a look, and is for all practical purposes, a Gretna museum inside.

Once a year (this coming weekend, in fact), Gretna welcomes a couple hundred thousand of our closest friends to participate in the Gretna Heritage Festival - where seven musical stages are set up, as well as a complete midway with carnival rides, and tons of great food! This year's performers include Lynyrd Skynrd, Grand Funk Railroad, Louis Prima, Sara Evans, Molly Hatchet, Brian Howe (of Bad Company fame), and local faves Frankie Ford, Rockin' Dopsie, and Amanda Shaw. Brass bands will also parade around the grounds. There will be about 77 musical performances over the course of the weekend!

We even have riverside concerts apart from the Heritage Festival, including free seating at our amphitheater.

We are a small city with a responsive and easily-accessible local government. We have the ease and friendliness of a Mayberry but with the benefits of living in an urban setting, complete with bicycle trails and public transportation. From my front door, I can walk four blocks to the Mississippi River, take a free ferry, and arrive in minutes over on Canal Street in New Orleans - right where the Central Business District meets the French Quarter. This means that I can walk to the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas and the Insectarium, browse at the Quarter's antiquarian bookstores, window-shop at the antique dealers on Royal Street, take in some jazz on Bourbon Street, hit the Cafe du Monde for beignets and cafe au lait, lounge around the French Market, have lunch at the Napoleon House and take the streetcar to the Audubon Zoo - all without need for an automobile. Now, how cool is that?

The Old Gretna neighborhood also attracts a lot of Hollywood film crews. It is absolutely ordinary to see movie trailers and film personnel on 4th and 5th streets. Our local restaurant/coffee shop, Common Grounds, is used regularly in movie shoots. And yet there is no pretension. You can walk right past all the regulars at Common Grounds, wave and exchange greetings, stroll on over to the post office (with a mural of Gretna on the wall and an old fashioned tin roof) and do postal business with Brenda - who knows just about everyone in the neighborhood by name.

I decided to go out on foot and take a few pictures of the seemly neighborhood of Old Gretna. Here they are. And be sure to check out the video above that truly captures the seemly essence of Gretna, Louisiana!

Just today, I got a call from a guy who lives about an hour away and would like his children "christened" at Salem Lutheran Church "Christened." That's always the first clue. He said the name of his home church quickly, and then explained that his parents live in the area and that it would be most convenient to "just do it there." So, could I just do the baptism?

I slowed him down and found out that he belongs to a Presbyterian church. I told him that we do have Presbyterian churches in the area and that it would be best to find out which one is in fellowship with his church. He insisted that Salem Lutheran would be more convenient, and that Lutheran and Presbyterian is really the same thing anyway. So, could I just do the baptism?

I explained to him that Lutherans and Presbyterians do have some fundamental differences. I briefly explained, for example, the difference between our views on the Eucharist. He said that he was christened a Catholic and had no problem with our view of the Sacrament. So, could I just do the baptism?

I recommended that he find a church that believes the way he believes. I asked him which denomination of Presbyterian his church belonged to. He didn't know. He explained that did not pick that church based on belief, but based on the fact that they are convenient and have a really good school. Belief really isn't the issue. So, could I just do the baptism?

I explained that if I were to baptize his children, they would be under my pastoral care. They would be Lutherans. He replied that this would be fine with him. He would have no problem being a Lutheran. He didn't know what Lutherans believe, but he was certain that he would be fine with it. But he really likes to go to the Presbyterian church because it's so convenient. And they have a really good school. So, could I just do the baptism?

I felt like I was stuck in one of those Rev. Hans Fiene Lutheran Satire cartoons complete with the monotone computer voices, circular reasoning, the astonished silent blinking pastor, and Offenbach's Can Can music.

Sunday, October 02, 2011

Dear friends, because of our fall into sin, we have troubles. We are bombarded with every imaginable problem and struggle: some big, some small, some common, and some shocking. Sometimes things happen to us that we could not have imagined in a thousand years. Sometimes it seems as if all of our sacrifices and labors have been utterly in vain. Sometimes we can look at the world around us and conclude that we are hopeless.

And without Christ, that is just what we are: hopeless. Hopeless lost in sin, mired in death, and ensnared by the devil.

The only reason we can have hope is because we believe in the promises of God as enfleshed in Jesus Christ and proclaimed by His Holy Word. We can have hope only because we have faith – even the “little faith” that Jesus scolds us for having.

Our common struggles and worries are all signs of our “little faith.” Our temptation to abandon our trust in the one true God by turning to serving money is a sign of our “little faith.” Our anxieties that seem to confess that we believe God does not care about us are signs of our “little faith.” The fact that we – in the way we earn, spend, and depend on our finances – seeking after these things in the manner of Gentiles – is a sign of our “little faith.”

But “your heavenly Father knows that you need them all,” all of those things we worry about. He knows that “you need them all,” says our Lord to us in our anxiety. And so we are to: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

“Seek first” dear friends! “Seek first” God’s kingdom and righteousness. For nothing will make us more unrighteous than squabbling over money, how to make it, how to save it, how to borrow it, and how to spend it. If these decisions are not rooted in the kingdom and God’s righteousness, they are rooted in some other god – for “no one can serve two masters.”

When we do not “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” when our priorities are messed up, we distance ourselves from the kingdom and from righteousness. We fall into the very thing St. Paul warns us about in failing to “walk by the Spirit.” That is when we “become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.” “Keep watch on yourself,” St. Paul warns us, “lest you too be tempted.” For “if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” This is the way of the world, the way apart from faith, the way of the sinful flesh. Rather, the apostle encourages us to “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

When we serve God, when we seek the kingdom, when we seek righteousness, then we love each other. When we seek after money, when our “little faith” leads us to worry and squabble, we turn on one another. This is St. Paul’s pastoral counsel to us today. And remember, dear Christians, St. Paul is writing to Christians. He is instructing church members how to be church members. If we are at one another’s throats, playing games of one-ups-manship, seeking to make ourselves look good at another’s expense, we are indeed of “little faith.” And, dear friends, that “little faith” can easily slip away to “no faith.” St. Paul is not giving us these dire warnings because he has nothing better to do. St. Paul warns us and calls us to repent because he is a servant of the very Christ who loves us, who has taught us to “do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

So what do we do, dear Christians? How do we live out this life that the Lord Jesus has given us as a free gift of grace? How does salvation and eternal life look to the church here on earth, even as we continue to struggle with sin, death, the devil, and our own flesh? How do we reconcile with brothers and sisters who have offended us and whom we have offended?

Our Lord calls us to repent. He calls us to “seek first” the kingdom rather than our own pride. And he does more than just tell us to do the right thing. He offers us a promise. He offers us hope. He delivers to us a measure of faith that coincides with the love he has for us: a love demonstrated by the cross, proclaimed in the Gospel, given to us in the sacraments. Dear brothers and sisters, in spite of our many shortcomings, our Lord Himself walks in the Spirit, restoring us “in a spirit of gentleness” even when we are “caught in any transgression.” Our Lord not only bears “His own load,” He also bears the load of our sins in His passion and death. And He does not “weary of doing good,” even to us who do not deserve it.

Our Lord has words of comfort and encouragement for us, dear friends! He has given us the example of the “little faith” of the widow of Zarephath. In the face of her family’s poverty, suffering, and death, her “little faith” was placed in God and His Word.

Hear the Word of the Lord, dear brothers and sisters! Listen carefully, for if you are not paying attention, you will miss it. Here it is: “Do not fear.” The prophet and the Word of God implore us to put aside our fear, to have faith, to believe in the goodness and mercy of the Lord, to trust that “what God ordains is always good” – even when to our own eyes and senses, it seems that there is no hope.

“For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.’”

This is how it is that our Lord says to us – not to scold but rather to encourage: “Do not be anxious about tomorrow.” For we live in the forgiveness of sins and of eternal life. We are of the “household of faith.” We have a heavenly Father who knows our needs, a heavenly Son who delivers forgiveness and salvation to us, and a heavenly Spirit who breathes faith into us from which we “reap eternal life.”

“And all these things will be added to you!” Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Why Father Hollywood?

While serving in a previous ministerial call, I had to moonlight at the local Hollywood Video to pay for health insurance for the family. It took one of my coworkers a couple weeks before she stopped addressing me as "Father" and started using my first name.
It was a fun job. My co-workers were the best. I got free rentals too. You can click here to see a picture. Now you know the rest of the story...